Overview
- The Nuri launch vehicle was moved to the Naro Space Center pad, raised to vertical and hooked to umbilical systems after a full set of pre-fueling checks were completed, leaving final go decisions pending a morning launch-management review.
- The fifth flight will carry five NEONSAT microsatellites and 10 CubeSats, with the NEONSATs confirmed as primary payloads that will form part of South Korea's first domestically launched microsatellite constellation.
- Engineers plan to sequentially release the five NEONSATs at roughly 35–40 second intervals near 575 kilometers altitude, then deploy the 10 CubeSats two at a time at about 10-second intervals to avoid collisions.
- Fueling is scheduled to begin a few hours before liftoff after the committee clears technical readiness, weather and space-conjunction risks, and the rocket will perform a post-deployment collision-avoidance maneuver before ending its flight.
- Once the NEONSAT constellation is complete with five more satellites on a planned sixth Nuri flight next year, officials say it will allow imaging of the Korean Peninsula multiple times per day to speed disaster response and bolster surveillance.